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Method and apparatus for designing and planning of workforce evolution

Method and apparatus for designing and planning of workforce evolution description/claims

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to workforce management in business and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for the continual design and planning of workforce evolution over time. The invention, while completely general, especially addresses the key issues involved with large workforces and/or with workforces whose evolution occurs at a relatively coarse time scale.

2. Background Description

Any business that consists in part of a non-negligible workforce, e.g., a small, medium or large business having several or many employees, requires continual design and planning of the evolution of the workforce over time. Employees are hired, promoted, transfer, resign, retire or are fired. Each employee brings a different skill set to the job and develops additional skills on the job. As a business grows, there is a need for additional employees and, depending on the nature of the growth of the business, employees to fill newly created jobs requiring skill sets not available within the pool of existing employees.

The management and planning of employee requirements is a problem for even small enterprises, and this problem grows as the business grows. Whole departments are devoted to personnel management (sometimes called human resources), but the ability to manage effectively the design and planning of workforce evolution of the enterprise is generally a matter of the individual experience and skill of the person assigned the tasks. That experience and skill varies greatly from individual to individual.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an analytical way to model and compute achievable states of the workforce over defined time periods.

According to the invention, mathematical means and methods are used within the context of mathematical models of a workforce evolution to address key issues in workforce design and planning. Examples of such mathematical means and methods are (but not limited to) fluid-flow models and diffusion-process models. In each case, these mathematical models characterize the workforce evolution over time as a function of dynamic workforce events, such as new hires, terminations, resignations, retirements, promotions and transfers, and dynamic workforce topology, such as the viable paths from one workforce resource state to another workforce resource state. The characteristics of dynamic workforce events can vary over time for a number of reasons, e.g., they can vary with economic and business conditions, and the dynamic workforce topology may also vary, both of which are captured by the invention. In addition to modeling the workforce evolution over time, the invention provides the ability to continually optimize and control the various dynamic workforce events in order to achieve some set of objectives, such as future targets for certain workforce resources and levels. As part of doing so, the invention incorporates the concept of a function of the state which can be an indicator of a value of being in this state. Examples of such functions include costs, rewards, penalties, profits, revenues, and others. For example, there can be a cost of maintaining each workforce resource in its current position/category, the concept of rewards, in which there can be a reward for having a resource in a specific position/category, and the concept of penalties, in which there can be a penalty for not having workforce resources available at some point in time with respect to missed opportunities.

The invention makes it possible to answer questions examples of which include: What is the best topology of the workforce evolution model under a certain set of constraints on the topology? What is the total cost of the workforce over a given time frame under a given policy for dynamic workforce events including hiring, attrition and promotion decisions? What is the total profit of the workforce over a given time frame under a given policy of dynamic workforce events including hiring, attrition and promotion decisions? What is the optimal workforce policy to minimize the cost of moving the current workforce state to a target state by a specific time epoch, possibly with a given constraint on profit and/or penalties? What is the optimal workforce policy to maximize the profit of moving the current workforce state to a target state by a specific time epoch, possibly with a given constraint on cost and/or penalties?

The foregoing and other objects, aspects and advantages will be better understood from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the general modeling concept of the transitions of a person in a role and/or skill level in the workforce;

FIG. 2 is a diagram, similar to FIG. 1, showing a specific modeling example from hiring to termination of a person in the workforce;

FIG. 3 is a diagram, similar to FIG. 2, showing a modeling example which includes branching to a different role and/or skill level by way of promotion;

FIG. 4 is a diagram, similar to FIG. 3, showing an alternative entry into a role and/or skill level by way of promotion;

FIG. 5 is a diagram, similar to FIG. 4, but showing an alternative entry into a role and/or skill level by way of demotion;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing more generally the transitions of multiple persons in the workforce;

FIG. 7 is a diagram, similar to FIG. 6, generalized to show transitions of any number of persons in the workforce;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the modeling of a role shift of a person in the workforce;

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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